Social class

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EATING BEHAVIOUR 149
(Waller et al. 1992; Hamilton and Waller 1993; Sumner et al. 1993). If such changes in
body dissatisfaction can occur after only acute exposure to these images then it is possible
that longer-term exposure might be more serious. However, is the media the only explanation of body dissatisfaction? Are women (and sometimes men) simply passive victims
of the whims of the media? Perhaps body dissatisfaction also comes from a range of
additional sources.
Ethnicity
Although body dissatisfaction has predominantly been seen as a problem for white
women, the literature examining the relationship between body dissatisfaction and ethnic
group is contradictory. For example, higher rates of a range of behaviours associated
with body dissatisfaction have been found in white women when compared with black
and/or Asian women in terms of bulimic behaviours (Gray et al. 1987), generalized
disordered eating (Abrams et al. 1992; Akan and Grilo 1995) and body dissatisfaction
and eating concerns (Rucker and Cash 1992; Powell and Khan 1995). However, in
direct contrast, other studies report the reverse relationship between ethnicity and
weight concern. For example, Mumford et al. (1991) reported results from a school in the
north of England that indicated that the prevalence of bulimia nervosa was higher
among Asian schoolgirls than their white counterparts. In parallel, Striegel-Moore
et al. (1995) reported higher levels of drive for thinness in black girls, and Hill and Bhatti
(1995) reported higher levels of dietary restraint in 9-year-old Asian girls when both
these samples were compared with white girls. Furthermore, additional studies have
suggested that equally high levels of weight concern can be found in women and girls
regardless of their ethnicity (Dolan et al. 1990; Ahmed et al. 1994). Therefore, some
research indicates that whites are more body dissatisfied than Asians and blacks, other
research shows that whites are less dissatisfied and some research even shows that there
is no difference by ethnic group.
Social class
Body dissatisfaction is also generally believed to be a problem for the higher classes.
However, the literature on social class is also contradictory. Several studies in this area
indicate that factors ranging from body dissatisfaction, body distortion, dieting
behaviour to eating disorders are more prevalent in higher class individuals. For
example, Dornbusch et al. (1984) examined social class and the desire to be thin in a
representative sample of 7000 American adolescents and concluded that higher class
females wanted to be thinner when compared with their lower class counterparts. In
parallel, Drenowski et al. (1994) reported that the higher class subjects in their sample
showed increased prevalence of dieting, bingeing and vigorous exercise for weight loss
and Wardle and Marsland (1990) reported that, although their higher class school
children were thinner, they showed greater levels of weight concern. Similar results have
also been reported for the prevalence of anorexia nervosa (Crisp et al. 1976).
However, research also suggests that the relationship between social class and
weight concern is not straightforward. For example, in direct contrast to the above studies,
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